Sam Rainsy gets 10 years

Sam Rainsy gets 10 years

Photo courtesy of the Sam Rainsy Party
Above: A map produced by the Sam Rainsy Party allegedly showing illegal border posts placed inside Cambodian territory by the Vietnamese. Below: A google map of the disputed area.

EMBATTLED opposition leader Sam Rainsy was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison yesterday on charges of disinformation and falsifying public documents, a ruling that critics described as a blow to democracy in Cambodia.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge Ke Sakhan also ordered the Sam Rainsy Party president to pay 5 million riels (US$1,190) in fines and 60 million riels in compensation to the state, saying he had “seriously affected” the government’s reputation.

Yesterday’s verdict marked the latest turn in a protracted legal wrangle complicated by the government’s relationship with its eastern neighbour and former political patron.

Sam Rainsy, who fled into exile last year and lives in Europe, was convicted in January by the Svay Rieng provincial court and sentenced to two years in prison in connection with a protest last October in which he uprooted several border markers in Svay Rieng’s Chantrea district.

In the aftermath of the conviction, he publicised evidence of alleged Vietnamese encroachment on Cambodian territory in video press conferences and on the SRP’s website, drawing government ire and the new charges on which he was convicted yesterday.

Police maintained a heavy security presence outside the courtroom yesterday morning, though the hearing was sparsely attended, save for a few observers and local journalists.

In a statement yesterday from London, Sam Rainsy dismissed the latest charges against him as “totally baseless”.

“Today’s verdict ... reflects the Vietnamese government’s anger against, and worry about, me because I dared, as a Cambodian member of parliament, defend Cambodian farmers, who are my constituents, against continuous border encroachments by Vietnam.”

But Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, urged Sam Rainsy to respect “the principle of rule of law”.

“We have to maintain rule of law in Cambodia,” Phay Siphan said.

“Who’s in the right position to say who’s wrong, who’s right? Only a judge in the court of law.”

RECOMMENDED STORIES

Prime Minister Hun Sen has instructed the Interior Ministry to investigate the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) and potentially close it “because they follow foreigners”, appearing to link the rights group to the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party's purported “revolution”.
The CNRP - the

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Sunday appeared to suggest he would have assassinated opposition leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha had he known they were promising to “organise a new government” in the aftermath of the disputed 2013 national elections.
In a clip from his speech

Government officials, thousands of monks and Prime Minister Hun Sen himself will hold a massive prayer ceremony at Angkor Wat in early December to highlight the Kingdom’s continuing “peace, independence and political stability”, a spectacle observers said was designed to disguise the deterioration of

In a speech to workers yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen pinned the blame for any damage inflicted on Cambodia’s garment industry by potential economic sanctions squarely on the opposition party.
“You must remember clearly that if the purchase orders are reduced, it is all